Page:The Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean, including the Shield of Hercules - Elton (1815).djvu/108

With crooked slanders wounds the virtuous man,
And stamps with perjury what hate began.
Lo! ill-rejoicing Envy, wing'd with lies,
Scattering calumnious rumours as she flies,
The steps of miserable men pursue
With haggard aspect, blasting to the view.
Till those fair forms in snowy raiment bright
Leave the broad earth^[1] and heaven-ward soar from sight:
Justice and Modesty from mortals driven,
Rise to th' immortal family of heaven:
Dread sorrows to forsaken man remain;
No cure of ills: no remedy of pain.
Now unto kings^[2] I frame the fabling song,
However wisdom unto kings belong.

1. Leave the broad earth.] Virgil alludes to this passage, Georg. ii. 473.
   From hence Astræa took her flight, and here
   The prints of her departing steps appear.—Dryden.
   
   
   As also Juvenal: Sat. vi. line 19.
   I well believe in Saturn’s ancient reign
   This Chastity might long on earth remain:—
   By slow degrees her steps Astræa sped
   To heaven above, and both the sisters fled.
   
   
2. Now unto kings.] Βασιλευς, which we render king, was properly, in the early times of Greece, a magistrate. The kings against